The hospital district’s dining cost six times Palomar’s

Line items from Tri-City meal at 20/Twenty. The bill totaled $1,414.06.

Business expenses

The top 5 Tri-City meals:

November 9, 2009: $1,924 at Bellefleur in Carlsbad for a “team building dinner following a board retreat” attended by 20 people. The dinner included seven rib-eye steak buffet dinners at $44 each, seven swordfish buffet dinners at $36 each and four chicken buffet dinners at $36 each.

August 11, 2009: $1,679 at 333 Pacific in Oceanside, a celebratory dinner with the earthquake retrofit team, attended by 12 people. The bill included 12 buffet meals at $82 and more than $370 in alcohol charges.

Nov. 11, 2010: $1,616 at Vigilluci’s for a dinner with the hospital’s research physicians attended by 16 people.

November 11, 2009: $1,499 at Twenty/20 in Carlsbad for a going-away dinner for former Chief Nurse Executive Joy Gorzeman attended by 20 people.

April 8, 2010: $1,414 at Twenty/20 for an accreditation report celebration dinner attended by 15 people. The tab included six $32 short ribs, four $23 salmons, asparagus bisque, and $286 in alcoholic beverages including cabernet, Scotch whisky and Long Island iced teas.

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Over two years, Tri-City Healthcare District CEO Larry Anderson and two other high-ranking officials at the public hospital were reimbursed nearly $70,000 for dinner meetings, staff banquets and other business meals.

Ten of the meals were for more than $1,000, including one dinner attended by 20 people that cost nearly $2,000.

The Watchdog sought records for such expenses under the California Public Records Act in September. The request took months to fulfill — in part because of an abortive lawsuit filed by the health district against the newspaper after the hospital released internal communications on the matter by mistake.

As a point of comparison, the U-T sought similar records from neighboring Palomar Health district, another public hospital agency. Those records were made available in less than a month.

Palomar’s CEO, two chief administrative officers and the chief finance officer were reimbursed just under $12,000 for meals during the same time period — less than Anderson alone.

Officials from both districts said such spending is an important tool in doing hospital business, including physician recruitment and employee appreciation. Tri-City officials point out that they are amid a $16.2 million financial turnaround.

“It is bad management not to recognize people for significant achievements,” hospital spokeswoman Teresa Connors wrote in a statement. “You don’t achieve excellence if you fail to recognize it — and reward it — in your staff. And we are committed to continuing to do both.”

Fatch, who earns $300,000 annually, was reimbursed the most — nearly $43,000 between October 2009 and September 2011. In one stretch between May and August of 2011, he was reimbursed on average for one meal every other day.

The executives deferred comment to Connors.

“Mr. Anderson and Mr. Fatch are personally responsible for physician/surgeon recruitment and relocation in the district,” she said. “The money spent in such efforts comes back to the district in new and more profitable business, which is evident in the medical center’s recent financial results.”